You belong to the first post-Cold War generation. The Soviets are not going to launch their missiles. The Red Army will never march down Broadway. You don't need to practice what to do in case of a nuclear attack while at school.
How different, as a result, is your view of the world from that of your parents and grandparents?
Of course, you are also the first 9/11 generation. Your generation has to deal with a different set of threats—and measures designed to reduce those threats. Will this have a lasting effect on your worldview? And how similar are the anxieties that fill your life to those of your parents and grandparents?
1. Examine these examples of Cold War-era informational material distributed by the government to prepare citizens for nuclear war.
2. Examine these images from period newspapers. Soviet Weapons:
Nuclear Tests
3. Look at a 1962 issue of Life Magazine devoted to fallout shelters and a video clip from a documentary titled Atomic Café.
Atomic Movie
Watch this video clip from youtube.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-w0Up-212g
4. Answer the following questions:
1. Do you think people become accustomed to these sorts of images? Or did they cause anxiety?
2. What was probably the most frightening part of Cold War?
◦ The power of the Soviet Union?
◦ The arms race?
◦ The fact that there was no meaningful dialog between the two nations?
◦ The nature of the weapons?
▪ Intercontinental missiles
▪ Invisible radioactive fallout
3. Why do you suppose these sorts of civil defense measures were encouraged?
Would fallout shelters and duck and cover drills protect people from nuclear bombs?
Do you think they were reassuring or frightening?
4. Do you think this generation was "scarred" in any way by this experience?
◦ Did it influence their worldview?
Their sense of society? Life? Politics?
5. How similar are contemporary anxieties about terrorism?
◦ Have we integrated a similar set of anti-terrorist measures in our daily lives?
Do similar forms of "educational information" circulate?